Fast-paced action of
wheelchair basketball part of Cuyamaca College’s
Disability Awareness Month
EL CAJON – The always inspiringwheelchair basketball game, where the sound of squeaking rubber
isn’t from the soles of players’ shoes, but from custom-built chairs pivoting
and spinning across the gym floor, is set for 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 28, at the Cuyamaca College gym as part of the college’s annual
commemoration of National Disability Awareness Month.
The event at 900 Rancho San Diego Parkway in Rancho San Diego
is free and open to the public.
The five-on-five games feature a mix of Cuyamaca’s basketball
team playing alongside members of the San Diego Xpress, a National Wheelchair
Basketball Association team formed in the mid-‘80s. Most of the wheelchair
athletes have suffered spinal cord injuries, but that hasn’t stopped them from
playing competitively.
The teams for Cuyamaca’s game are mixed with players from
both sides, as well as anyone who wants to join in, so that the wheelchair
league athletes don’t completely dominate the scoreboard, said Mary
Asher-Fitzpatrick, a learning disabilities specialist in Cuyamaca College’s
Disabled Students Programs and Services office. This is the 12th year
that DSP&S and Rob Wojkowski, the men’s basketball coach at Cuyamaca, have been
coordinating the game.
The game provides a new
awareness to students and others of what wheelchair athletes can accomplish,
and, more often than not, results in Cuyamaca athletes taking their share of
spills from the low-to-the-ground chairs specially designed for speed and
maneuverability.
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Intergovernmental Relations, Economic
Development, and Public Information
8800 Grossmont College Drive El Cajon, CA
92020-1799 Phone 619-644-7573 Fax 619-644-7924; www.gcccd.edu
Fall
'09 
